But the operative mason required materials wherewith to construct his
temple. There was, for instance, the _rough ashlar_--the stone in its rude
and natural state--unformed and unpolished, as it had been lying in the
quarries of Tyre from the foundation of the earth. This stone was to be
hewed and squared, to be fitted and adjusted, by simple, but appropriate
implements, until it became a _perfect ashlar_, or well-finished stone,
ready to take its destined place in the building.

Here, then, again, in these materials do we find other elementary symbols.
The rough and unpolished stone is a symbol of man's natural
state--ignorant, uncultivated, and, as the Roman historian expresses it,
"grovelling to the earth, like the beasts of the field, and obedient to
every sordid appetite;" [56] but when education has exerted its salutary
influences in expanding his intellect, in restraining his hitherto unruly
passions, and purifying his life, he is then represented by the perfect
ashlar, or finished stone, which, under the skilful hands of the workman,
has been smoothed, and squared, and fitted for its appropriate place in
the building.

Here an interesting circumstance in the history of the preparation of
these materials has been seized and beautifully appropriated by our
symbolic science. We learn from the account of the temple, contained in
the First Book of Kings, that "The house, when it was in building, was
built of stone, made ready before it was brought thither, so that there
was neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron, heard in the house while
it was in building." [57]

Now, this mode of construction, undoubtedly adopted to avoid confusion and
discord among so many thousand workmen,[58] has been selected as an